…AND TO EAGLE SQUARE! (VII)
LET THEM KNOW THAT CHALLENGES ONLY MAKE PEOPLE BETTER; AND NIGERIANS ARE MUCH CHALLENGED ALREADY: “The Japanese love fresh fish. However, the waters close to Japan have not held much fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese, fishing boats got bigger and went farther. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to […]
LET THEM KNOW THAT CHALLENGES ONLY MAKE PEOPLE BETTER; AND NIGERIANS ARE MUCH CHALLENGED ALREADY: “The Japanese love fresh fish. However, the waters close to Japan have not held much fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese, fishing boats got bigger and went farther. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste. To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price. So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish. So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? L. Ron Hubbard had observed in the early 1950s: ‘Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment.’ So do fish. To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged.”
LET THEM BE DECENT AND CIRCUMSPECT IN ALL THEY DO; THEY OCCUPY RESPECTABLE POSITIONS, HOWEVER CONTRIVED: “Hana, daughter of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, wrote in her ‘More Than A Hero: Muhammad Ali’s Life Lessons Through His Daughter’s Eyes’: ‘…I was wearing a little white tank top and a short black skirt. I had been raised Orthodox Muslim, so I had never before worn such revealing clothing while in my father’s presence…[M]y younger sister, Laila, and me [went] up to my father’s suite. He took a good look at us and then he sat me down…and said something that I will never forget. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, ‘Hana, everything that God made valuable in the world is covered and hard to get to. Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground covered and protected. Where do you find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the ocean covered up and protected in a beautiful shell. Where do you find gold? Way down in the mine, covered over with layers and layers of rock. You’ve got to work hard to get to them.’ He looked at me with serious eyes. ‘Your body is sacred. You’re far more precious than diamonds and pearls, and you should be covered too.’”
LET THEM ESCHEW CORRUPTION; NIGERIA HAS BEEN STOLEN BLIND ALREADY: “A Nigerian politician was opportune to visit a similarly corrupt country on another continent. While there, he met his opposite number who owned several luxury cars and lived in a mansion with several servants. ‘How can you be so affluent?’ wondered the Nigerian politician aloud. The other took him to the window and showed out a road, ‘Do you see that road?’ ‘Yes?’ The other patted his pocket and said, ‘15%; from an eight-laner to a six-laner’. The Nigerian politician returned to Nigeria. A year later, the other politician visited Nigeria. When he noticed that the Nigerian now had a more lavish lifestyle than himself, he had to ask, ‘How did you do it?’ The Nigerian politician beckoned the visitor to the window. ‘Do you see that bridge over there?’ ‘What bridge?’ asked the other, seeing no bridge. The Nigerian pats his pocket and says, ‘100%’.”
LET THEM BE EVEN HALF AS INTELLIGENT AS THE ANT; THIS COUNTRY WILL BE TWICE AS GOOD: “The intelligence of the Ant is bewildering. When they carry seeds to their homes, they break them so that they do not sprout. If the seed is of the type that sprouts when split, they split it into four pieces. If the seeds are moistened or get wet and the ants fear they may spoil, they take them out to dry in the sun and then return them. This is why you sometimes find a lot of broken seeds outside an ant home, and if you return a little while later you wouldn’t find one seed. Yet another aspect of their intelligence is that they do not build a nest except on high ground in order to protect themselves from being drowned by running water, so you wouldn’t find an ant nest at the bottom of a valley, rather you would find it always above the water level.”
LET THEM BE SELFLESS IN ALL THEY DO; PERCHANCE NIGERIA WILL BENEFIT: “A wise old woman who was travelling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. ‘I’ve been thinking,’ he said, ‘I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious.’ ‘And what is that?’ asked the wise woman. The other replied: ‘Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.’”
LET THEM KNOW THEY DON’T HAVE THE MONOPOLY OF WISDOM; THE LOWLY CONSTITUENT MAY BE MUCH SHARPER THAN THEY THINK: “A carpenter was giving evidence about an accident he had witnessed. The lawyer for the defendant was trying to discredit him and asked him how far away he was from the accident. The carpenter replied, ‘Twenty-seven feet, six and one-half inches.’ ‘What? How come you are so sure of that distance?’ asked the lawyer. ‘Well, I knew sooner or later some idiot would ask me. So I measured it!’ replied the carpenter.”
LET THEM KNOW WHAT WE KNOW ALREADY; THAT MOST OF THEM MAY NOT BE WHAT THEY CLAIM TO BE: “Scientists have finally discovered what is wrong with the politician’s brain. They discovered that on the right side there is nothing left, and on the left side there is nothing right!”
And so, again, let us PUSH to Eagle Square!